Rugby or NFL
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haha
during the NFL off-season conference this year by far the most controversial issue was the "tush-push"
this is basically a maul play in which the offensive line powers forward and the QB just pushes in behind for a TD or a first-down
the Philadelphia Eagles have perfected it, and so if they need a yard for a first-down or TD they have it 100% guaranteed
it was a big part of their SB win this yeara lot of teams wanted it banned, the criticism being "IT'S A RUGBY PLAY" and we dont want it in our game
they needed 24 (75%) votes to get rid of it, and got 22
even the Bills who are probably next best at it, voted to ban it
i think it will be banned eventuallyso much for the maul . . .
as for the scrum . . .
may be rugby could swap their ultra messy scrum for the much more tidy NFL scrimmage line
offensive linemen and frontrowers are all the same, all fat bastards -
@WestieFella said in Rugby or NFL:
@Dan54 OK, I totally understand the safety aspect and that has to be paramount.
It's just annoying when teams use scrums just as a means to get a penalty.
I'd make the penalty threshold higher, it just seems like you get a penalty just for being better at scrumaging.
Name another sport in which you get penalised just because the other team is better than you.
If a team goes backwards at a scrum it usually results in a penalty, does it t mean there is foul play, or just that the other team was better/stronger?
If your scrum is going forward is that not reward enough?
Take the rwc for example, if a top nation is playing a complete minnow then pretty much every scrum results in a penalty, and sometimes a yellow card.
Basically the minnow is being penalised for being a minnow...I agree on the seemingly getting penalised for going backwards, but it's really only (supposedly) when someone turns in etc, not for going back. I honestly don't know what answer is, because if you don't penalise teams, and they getting beaten at scrum, some will turn in to stop it going forward, or have their feet 'slip' out from under them. Coaches will alays use any law change to suit their team and cover weaknesses if they can.
I not a fan of a lot of scrum penalties, but neither am I a fan of illegal tactics to stop other team. I not even a fan of making them release ball quick really, because I know how hard we worked when I played (a long time back) to push teams back etc. We even set up in second row (where I played) differently to now. We all bound tight as to try and be one tight unit, I used to have to force my head between prop and hooker etc.
@mohikamo , on YCing someone everytime scrum goes down, I genuinely think in one way would be ok, but by the powers, there will be some screams then as quite often it not clear who takes it down, or if anyone is even at fault. Sometimes it just shit ground. -
@WestieFella yep you will invariably be pinged for being inferior by having tries scored against you, but sometimes penalised by YC as well just because you arent as good, making the 'contest' even worse.
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they need to go back to the drawing board on everything and decide whether it should be a free-kick or penalty. scrums are the prime example. it's meant to be a contest for possession. That means the outcome should be winning the ball or a free-kick, unless someone does something dangerous. no stoppage while we set another scrum. no stoppage while we kick for touch and then wait for the lineout. just a fucking free-kick, play on.
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@Dan54 said in Rugby or NFL:
@reprobate as it is in Super. But have to be careful, if you drop a scrum to stop a try maybe getting scored, is a free kick enough?
Hence back to the drawing board mate. That could be covered by penalty try rules, repeated / cynical infringing etc.
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@No-Quarter said in Rugby or NFL:
@MN5 said in Rugby or NFL:
@No-Quarter said in Rugby or NFL:
One thing that the review system in cricket has really helped with is taking the heat off the umpires. There is so much less scrutiny on them these days. If an umpire gets a call wrong, then the expectation immediately falls on the players to review. If they don't review, then it's much harder to just blame the umpire when the professional players didn't notice either. Then in the scenario where the umpire gets a call wrong and the players don't have any reviews left, then the first comment is they shouldn't have wasted their reviews on calls they got wrong and the umpire got wrong. I think that's been a really good thing overall.
Rugby is a very different sport to cricket though, but some form of onus on the players also making the right call would help, at the moment the assumption is all the players on the field except the ref knew what happened in the moment, and that won't be true at all.
Good God.
If Rugby allowed players to review that might kill the game stone dead. Imagine if Jonny Sexton was still playing ?
The idea being it removes the TMO from intervening, or intervening much less. At the moment the TMO is randomly intervening, causing huge delays in some games where he thinks there's a lot to make calls on.
Little Jonny could blow his only two reviews in the first 10 minutes then bitch and moan about calls against him for the rest of the game, and it'd fall on deaf ears because he wasted his reviews on calls he got wrong.
I just don't think this would work well in practice.
Here's a scenario that happens fairly regularly - ball carrier in tight, carrier 2/3 tacklers over the line, mass of bodies but knocks the ball on slightly before grounding it over the line.
It would be understandable the players might not see this, nor the referee. But the cameras pick it up. I'm not sure it's fair on the defending side to expect them to challenge something they had no way of seeing. So does the TMO intervene, or let a dodgy try stand?
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a slight knock on nobody saw except the guy with 10 super slow-mo cameras is not a dodgy decision though. The game needs to learn to live with this stuff.
They won't though, because no one in sport is mature enough. Losing teams, coaches and fans default to ref bashing.
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@mariner4life said in Rugby or NFL:
a slight knock on nobody saw except the guy with 10 super slow-mo cameras is not a dodgy decision though. The game needs to learn to live with this stuff.
They won't though, because no one in sport is mature enough. Losing teams, coaches and fans default to ref bashing.
With refs like Doleman who can’t see infringements at the end of their arms, TMOs are essential
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@MiketheSnow said in Rugby or NFL:
@mariner4life said in Rugby or NFL:
a slight knock on nobody saw except the guy with 10 super slow-mo cameras is not a dodgy decision though. The game needs to learn to live with this stuff.
They won't though, because no one in sport is mature enough. Losing teams, coaches and fans default to ref bashing.
With refs like Doleman who can’t see infringements at the end of their arms, TMOs are essential
hard disagree, but we'll never meet on any common ground so I'll leave it alone
what you mean is "can't see infringements against my team at the end of their arms" because no one gives a solitary fuck about their own openside "pushing the line" and anyone who says they do is flat out lying.
At any given time on a rugby field there are probably 3 players infringing. There is a wild inconsistency of what gets looked at.
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@mariner4life said in Rugby or NFL:
@MiketheSnow said in Rugby or NFL:
@mariner4life said in Rugby or NFL:
a slight knock on nobody saw except the guy with 10 super slow-mo cameras is not a dodgy decision though. The game needs to learn to live with this stuff.
They won't though, because no one in sport is mature enough. Losing teams, coaches and fans default to ref bashing.
With refs like Doleman who can’t see infringements at the end of their arms, TMOs are essential
hard disagree, but we'll never meet on any common ground so I'll leave it alone
what you mean is "can't see infringements against my team at the end of their arms" because no one gives a solitary fuck about their own openside "pushing the line" and anyone who says they do is flat out lying.
At any given time on a rugby field there are probably 3 players infringing. There is a wild inconsistency of what gets looked at.
You can look at it this way, but when obvious infringements are committed and missed by the the three onfield officials it’s quite galling
Regardless of whether it’s for or against your team, or rugby fans with no national skin in the game who just want to see a fair contest
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what are you talking about though? Offside? Side entry? taking too long with your hands on the ball? not rolling away fast enough? blocking the kick chase? obstruction? scrum infringements? Not 5m at the lineout? off your feet at an attacking ruck?
Rugby has a thousand rules, it's the most complicated fucking sport on earth for almost no reason. If you want everything 100% "accurate" (however you want to measure that given so many infringements are open to the interpretation of the ref in question) you are basically asking for a game of almost non-stop penalties and set pieces.
And that brings me to the biggest point, whose interpretation matters most? refs or TMO's?
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@mariner4life well we already know different refs and different TMO's have different interpretations, so goes back to your comment re overly complicated rules.
Not black and white, we have 50 shades of grey!
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It's not a shot at rugby either, League has like 5 rules and the bunker comes up with the weirdest shit every week and people hate it.
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@mariner4life said in Rugby or NFL:
what are you talking about though? Offside? Side entry? taking too long with your hands on the ball? not rolling away fast enough? blocking the kick chase? obstruction? scrum infringements? Not 5m at the lineout? off your feet at an attacking ruck?
Rugby has a thousand rules, it's the most complicated fucking sport on earth for almost no reason. If you want everything 100% "accurate" (however you want to measure that given so many infringements are open to the interpretation of the ref in question) you are basically asking for a game of almost non-stop penalties and set pieces.
And that brings me to the biggest point, whose interpretation matters most? refs or TMO's?
I don’t care who calls it, but I’d be really happy to see consistent and correct calls for knock ons, forward passes, offsides, and grounding
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offside has never been called by a TMO except on poor old England when they thought they had beaten us.
You're dreaming on the rest. There has never, ever been a clear consensus across the world on a forward pass. Knock ons are way open to interpretation and probably for the really little ones not best viewed by a TV angle.
What's the problem with grounding?
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@mariner4life Im with you on this. Referral would be perfect (with right ot retain if call upheld) If it wasnt glaringly obvious enough for the ref & touchies to notice, along with the captain & his team being not convinced enough to appeal - award it. Every now and then it might lead to a lucky try but thats part of the beauty of the game in my opinion. That fijian try that was dissallowed by an Aussie foot in touch on the other side of the field really epitomised TMO over reach in my opinion. Reward good play and focus on the balance of the game, there is space for margin of error in rugby.
Im sure they could put trackers in players boots, the ball, have AI scanning the field at all times and just handover the reigns entirely if they wanted every single call to be correct and nothing would ever be missed, if all we cared about was accuracy, but no the subjectivity is part of the enjoyment, the dark arts and the bounce of the ball. Rant over -
@barbarian said in Rugby or NFL:
@No-Quarter said in Rugby or NFL:
@MN5 said in Rugby or NFL:
@No-Quarter said in Rugby or NFL:
One thing that the review system in cricket has really helped with is taking the heat off the umpires. There is so much less scrutiny on them these days. If an umpire gets a call wrong, then the expectation immediately falls on the players to review. If they don't review, then it's much harder to just blame the umpire when the professional players didn't notice either. Then in the scenario where the umpire gets a call wrong and the players don't have any reviews left, then the first comment is they shouldn't have wasted their reviews on calls they got wrong and the umpire got wrong. I think that's been a really good thing overall.
Rugby is a very different sport to cricket though, but some form of onus on the players also making the right call would help, at the moment the assumption is all the players on the field except the ref knew what happened in the moment, and that won't be true at all.
Good God.
If Rugby allowed players to review that might kill the game stone dead. Imagine if Jonny Sexton was still playing ?
The idea being it removes the TMO from intervening, or intervening much less. At the moment the TMO is randomly intervening, causing huge delays in some games where he thinks there's a lot to make calls on.
Little Jonny could blow his only two reviews in the first 10 minutes then bitch and moan about calls against him for the rest of the game, and it'd fall on deaf ears because he wasted his reviews on calls he got wrong.
I just don't think this would work well in practice.
Here's a scenario that happens fairly regularly - ball carrier in tight, carrier 2/3 tacklers over the line, mass of bodies but knocks the ball on slightly before grounding it over the line.
It would be understandable the players might not see this, nor the referee. But the cameras pick it up. I'm not sure it's fair on the defending side to expect them to challenge something they had no way of seeing. So does the TMO intervene, or let a dodgy try stand?
Cricket already lives with this scenario where say the batsmen has faintly edged it, the umpire gives it not out, and the bowling side doesn't review even though the 3rd umpire can see a clear edge on the slow mo and snicko etc. In that scenario, the immediate reaction from fans is they should have reviewed it, not that the 3rd umpire should have intervened even though technically he could have. It puts the onus back on the players as well as the ref, which helps people remember that they are all human out there doing their best.
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I also take the point that this would take a pretty big cultural shift. Screaming at the ref for your sides inadequacies is very ingrained in rugby, more so than it ever was in cricket.
